The Apple watch has been at the top in the smartwatch market for many years and recent figures only show that the tech giant company is not ready to give up this position. Apple surpassed its competitor, the Swiss watch industry, which includes all Swiss watch brands. In 2018, the Swiss watch industry is estimated to have shipped a total of 24.2 million watches. The company experienced a 13 percent decrease as its estimated shipping for 2019 stood at 21.1 million units. Comparatively, in 2018, an estimated 22.5 million units was shipped by Apple. The figures increased by 36 percent the following year, as Apple shipped an estimated 30.7 million units in 2019. Apple does not present specific Apple Watch unit sales in its quarterly earnings, but Strategy Analytics are able to arrive at the watch sales estimate with data collected from vendors and retail partners.
Apple currently sells more smartwatches and headphones than any other company in the world, and is way ahead of other large smartwatch brands like Xiaomi, Samsung, Huawei, and Boat. According to the latest report by International Data Cooperation, Apple was the market leader in wearables and hearables in Q4 2020 with a 36.2% market share. By the fourth quarter of 2020, the watch numbers increased by 45.6% and IDC says that this is because of the three models of the Series 6, Watch SE and Series 3 smartwatches, which are appealing and set at different price points.
At the end of the quarter, Xiaomi ended up in the second spot, Samsung, third, Huawei fourth, and the Indian brand, Boat, surprisingly, at fifth. Xiaomi experienced a 18.3% decline in its smartwatch shipments. However, the company saw a 55.5% increase in its wireless earbuds shipments. Samsung’s low-cost wristbands increased the company’s shipment and Huawei’s shipments declined in almost every market, except for China and Japan.
It is quite obvious that other smartwatch companies are losing the smartwatch wars as Apple continues to deliver digital watches with amazing designs that are appealing to younger consumers.
